Extreme Championship Wrestling: Hardcore Revolution
Extreme Championship Wrestling: Hardcore Revolutionby Acclaim
Platform: PlayStation
ESRB Rating: Mature
ASIN: B00004R9IE
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GameSpot Review: Extreme Championship Wrestling is an east-coast-based wrestling organization that uses "extreme" wrestling matches as a way to distinguish itself from the slightly more kid-friendly WWF and WCW. Good ECW matches contain all sorts of mayhem that you'd never see on a more straitlaced wrestling program, from people being tossed through mountains of tables, to barbed-wire matches. Any rules you might be used to from watching safer wrestling shows have been thrown out the window. ECW may not have the big names or the big budgets of a WWF or a WCW, but it's got many talented wrestlers and a unique and interesting product. Acclaim's ECW Hardcore Revolution, however, contains none of this.
Remember Acclaim's last wrestling game, WWF Attitude? ECW Hardcore Revolution is, at its core, Attitude with different wrestlers and different sound effects, with a couple of new modes and moves (mostly finishers) tossed in to help make you forget that you've already played this game. But with the game playing nearly identically to Attitude, it's impossible to shake the feeling that you've played this game before. None of the "extreme" elements that made ECW as popular as it is are present. Any finisher that requires an object of any kind (Rob Van Dam's Vamdaminator, for instance) isn't in the game. You won't see anyone flying off the top rope out into the crowd area here. The only "extreme" differences between this game and Attitude is that this game plays slightly faster, it's easier to toss someone out of the ring, the language is a slightly dirtier, and there's a barbed wire match, which turns the ring ropes into some horrible-looking barbed wire. Trying to bounce off the wire makes you fall over in pain.
For those of you unfamiliar with WWF Attitude, it uses a balanced gameplay system of grappling and reversals that keep players from relying on the same easy moves over and over again. Basically, you want to pull off a few easy moves, like punches, kicks, and other simple moves to swing the match's advantage in your favor. Once your advantage light is fully lit, it's significantly easier to execute grapple moves. If you don't have the advantage, harder moves will usually be blocked. As you wear your opponent's health bar down, you'll eventually be able to perform your wrestler's finishing move. ECW works in the exact same way, right down to identical life bars. Graphically, the game has been bumped a notch over Attitude. The characters are more colorful, as are the arenas. The sound is also good, though it's still chock-full of lame phrases from the crowd. The announcing seems more accurate, mostly because Joey Styles, the voice of ECW, works alone, so there's less speech to match up with the action. ECW Hardcore Revolution isn't a bad game, by itself. But it in no way represents the style of wrestling that the ECW uses, it has absolutely zero points going for it in the originality department, and the game comes off as a real slap in the face to the federation's hard-core fans. ECW and its fans deserve better than this. ECW's wrestling style isn't the same as the WWF's, and ECW's game shouldn't be like the WWF's, either. Plus, this is the third year that Acclaim has trotted out the same wrestling engine with a few slight tweaks. It's getting very old. Fans of ECW would be better served by waiting for Acclaim's next ECW game, which will use a new (and hopefully more accurate) engine. --Jeff Gerstmann
Customer Reviews:
ECW Hardcore Revolution, December 12, 2002
Reviewer: val shackelford from rolla, mo. United States
hey if you do not like ecw hardcore revolution then you dont know what you are missing this game rocks with sandman,rob van dam, little spike dudley,angel,jason,tommy dreamer,sabu,i forgot the rest of their names. This game is better than wwf attittude. This game features creat a wrestler,career mode,tournement,and many more things.
The Gameis O.K, October 23, 2002
Reviewer: carole brisseau from turnersville, new jersey United States
This game is o.k but it takes to long to load and even loner to load on a PS2 system I was not apeccting anything better that it was because Acclaim because they can;t make wreslting games and when I go into death math mode I only got the table in the corner of the area once in about 20 times. But I loved the barded wire math the should make more wwe game with blood or a on or off button for the blood. The finishers ...or rvd to do the five star frog splash you have to beat your oppent to a pult and you have to pree way too many buttons. I have played this game on the N64 and it is much better on N 64 than on playtation . I wold rent this game first then buy it ...
ECW Hardcore Revolution, November 23, 2001
Reviewer: Nick Carter from Los Angeles, CA USA
If you liked WWF Attitude for the playstation than this is the game for you. If you are getting sick of Attitude, which personally I don't think is possible, than you should buy this game. It has all of the ECW wrestlers from before the ECW went out of business and it has a lot of cool matches. My favorite match is a barbed wire match were the ropes are exchanged for barbed wire.
When you whip your opponent into the ropes their back gets all bloody. This is probably why they gave the game rating of "M" for mature. Still this is one of the best wrestling games of all time. I really like the fact that you get to beat the crap out of Paul Haymen when ever you want.
This should have been called ECW Attitude., June 26, 2000
Reviewer: A gamer from Butte, Montana
I'm a fan of Acclaim's WWF games, and ECW is just a complete copy off of WWF Attitude. If you've never played any Acclaim WWF games and like the Ecw, rent this first before buying it.
Pretty good the new game should be better, May 31, 2000
Reviewer: A gamer from New York, New York
This game was ok considering it is the only ECW video game out, but if your looking to buy it now i would probibly wait till Anarchy Rules comes out. But still if you are a big Ecw fan you should probibly check it out. But it also has alot of WWF type of matches on it. So some things stink, but some other things are really cool.
come on ecw, March 12, 2000
Reviewer: A gamer from houston, texas
Now I love ECW, I always watch it on TV. When i heard Acclaim made a game about it, I couldn't wait to get it. I played right when i got home and it was good, but everytime I kept playing it there was a lot missing. I mean the create-a-wrestler is great, the season is good, but it's nothing like the real thing. I miss Joey Styles saying his famous,"Oh my god!" And there r no tables and thats what ecw is all about. everytime u see ecw on tv u see a table or more stacked on each other but in this game there's one and it is very hard to get it and u cant put them on the table and do the five star splash or anything except do a regular move. its a pretty good game and u will have fun with it but dont expect anything close to the real thing. and u cant go into the crowd or backstage and u can do moves on the weapons but nothing will happen it will dissapear i think acclaim made it too big of a hype with the barbwire match, and thats all this game has.
Good, But Could've Been Better, February 22, 2000
Reviewer: A gamer from USA
I am an ECW fan, and I like this game, but I think it could've been better. Here are some flaws the game has- *It's just like WWF Attitude (all they did is put in new wrestlers, and added one more kind of a match- a barbwire match-which really kicks ass) *It doesn't have the wrestler's real entrance music *Hardly any new weapons *You can't go backstage. But there are some things in this game that makes it better than WWF Attitude- *Barbwire match *More blood *More swearing. I suggest if you are an ECW fan-you should get this game right away, but if you like the WWF, and you are willing to wait another two or three weeks-get WWF Smackdown, it will blow this game away. But again, if you are a real hardcore ECW fan, and you don't like the WWF, get this game right away, it's worth it. It's just not the coolest, just not the best, just in credible.